It’s Been Done
There was a constant battle that I would go through daily. I came to Christ, repented of my past sins, yet, my past would always come back to haunt
me. Fact was that I didn’t know that regardless of how bad I had sinned, it was all forgotten and forgiven by God. The devil was always trying to bring me down and I was always making it easier on him. I would constantly remember the situations I would be in due to thinking insanely and after all the memories in the world would hit me like two tons of bricks, I would simply feel the lowest and would even be afraid to address myself to God because I would not feel worthy of doing so. See, I would feel that He would not want to forgive me of my past, when indeed, I had already asked him to forgive me about when I asked Him
into my heart. I was asking Him to forgive something He had already forgiven! Then, I came across
2 Corinthians 5:17. Turn your Bibles to that scripture and read along with me. It says: “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new
creature. Old things have passed and now all these are made new.” At first I didn’t understand it. I was like, “Ehh!?” I mean, how could something that has
been old and used become new? I asked a few people for their opinions and most of them said, “Once you come to Christ, your past is forgotten and not just
forgotten, but forgiven. It’s a gonner.” Others were like, “Hee, doih!” The fact of the matter was that I didn’t know that as soon as I confessed the sinners’
prayer, asked Jesus Christ into my heart to be my personal Lord and Savior, He forgot about everything I had done, forgave them, and opened up a brand new
account to my name with the account number: 007N*E*W*B*A*B*E* - “NEW BABE”. If you killed, hated, stold, or even hurt before you came to Christ, it’s all
in the past, and if you repented and if you were to go to Christ after that and ask Him to forgive you for talking bad about the youth pastor from Trinity Worship
Center, God would look at you and ask, “What you talking about, Buddy?!?” The word says He takes your sins, buries them in the deepest of the sea, and never
ever brings them up again. It’s a promise. It’s the devil the nosy one that’s always shoving his stinky tail where he is not supposed to. Let me tell you
something: There is always going to be hell imposing before you experience heaven. Once the devil knows there is going to be a financial breakthrough, an
emotional breakthrough, a physical, mental, or a spiritual breakthrough, the devil is going to cause a cotton picking riot to keep you from obtaining your blessing, but once he has thrown all his darts at you and fails to bring your expectations and your emotions down, he is going to try to hit you where it hurts the most: Your mind. That’s his last target available and his last weapon against you. There’s a song that CARMAN sings entitled “Revival In The Land”. There is a part towards the end of the song where there is a demon that reports himself to his chief, Satan. The demon informs Satan that the Upper Room Youth of Trinity Worship Center is on their knees, on their faces, just pleading and praying for revival. The devil tries to force weapons against them, but the demon reminds him that in Isaiah 54:17 it says that “No weapon forced against them shall prosper!” The devil tries to come against them, but the Word says that like a flood, the Lord will lift up a standard against him. Finally, the devil says, “I will
remind them of their pasts. How they were liars, cheaters, manipulators!” Then the demon is like, “Yo, boss, you know what will happen if you remind the saints of their pasts?” Satan is like, “And what is that?” The demon responds, “They’ll just remind you of your future!” Them, the devil, knowing he is defeated, falls helplessly on the floor and shouts, “Noooooo!” He knows he is condemned and
doesn’t want to go alone. He wants to make you believe that you are hopeless and make you fall so that you, too, can burn eternally with him. Listen to this very closely: Your past is in the past; past tense. Sure, maybe you messed up again and again after you got saved. We all do, but you have something now that you didn’t have before: Jesus. As of now, dwell in the present with Him. We see in soap operas how evil is brought out of characters to make someone else feel bad. The Lord doesn’t rub anything in our faces to make us feel bad. That’s of the devil, man! All the contrary, when He brings something to our attention, it’s with love, and you can actually feel it when it’s Him, because He creates conviction within our hearts and restores us as new. There is just one step that comes after we have been forgiven by Christ and that’s self forgiveness. My problem was that I hadn’t forgiven myself. Once I accepted that my past life was under the blood, my deliverance came. I conclude by telling you this story: There was a young man that had the habit of stealing. He started with candy bars, pens, a little here and a little there. One time, he was busted by his dad and his dad warned him. His dad told him, “Son, you know you are not
supposed to steal, but I cannot guard over you all the time. One thing I tell you is that if you ever get caught by the law, you are no longer to be known as my
son and I will no longer be known as your father.” The boy, ignoring his father, kept on stealing, getting worse and worse each time, and when he least
expected it, he got caught, trialed, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He would write to his father almost everyday asking him for forgiveness, but never
once received a response. The day finally came when he was to be set free. He wrote one last letter to his father saying: “Dad, I get out in two days. I will take the train that passes behind your home. If you have forgiven me, please tie “one” white sheet to the tree in the corner of your backyard. When I come close to the property and if I see the sheet tied to the tree, I will ask for the train to be stopped and I will come home. If the there isn’t a white sheet tied to the tree, I will proceed with another destination and nor you nor my mother nor anybody will ever hear from me again. Two days later, this young man got on his train and headed towards his father’s house. Right when they came to the side of a hill that would lead them towards his father’s home’s backyard, he asked for the gentleman next to him to look out the window to check if there was "one" white sheet tied up to a tree in the backyard they were soon to pass by. The man looked out and with a surprised face, he responded, “No... No, that is not what I see...” The young man was saddened, but his sigh was interrupted by the other man’s words which were, “What... What I see are “many” white sheets covering the tree, what I see are white sheets covering the whole backyard... I don’t understand this, but what I see are white sheets all over the fence! What does this mean?” “What that means,” responded the young man, “is that my father has forgiven me, and now, I can
forgive myself. I can go home in peace.” The devil tried to deceive me, but even after I stold, lied, hated, lived a life of sexual immorality, life a secret life of cocaine addiction, even after drinking, being volunteerly exposed to pornography, and illegal activity, the Lord still picked me out of billions
and billions of sand grains and carried me, bathed me in His blood, renewed, restored, and remade me. Just like this father forgave his son, my Father, God,
forgave me and I forgave myself. Today, God is saying, “I have my arms extended. I have created you with love and with that same love, I forgive you.”
Listen to this: If there would be no hope for you, you would not be hearing this message of hope and today, I ask, will you forgive yourself? The Bible says in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me all ye who are weary and I will give you rest.” Lay down your guilt, and let Him give you rest in His forgiveness Won’t you
come and let Him heal you, your life, and your heart now?
